Ever thought that you could legitimately make yourself rich using other people’s wealth? In fact, you would be paid to do so. And quite handsomely, at that.

All you have to do is manage money, and manage it well. As the economy opens up and the growth graph rises steadily northwards, the demand for money managers of various kinds has only got more acute.

In 1994, Sanjay Goenka was a 27-year-old graduate of the Institute of Cost and Works Accountant of India (ICWAI) in Calcutta, with just a few years of hands-on training at companies as a funds manager. It did not take him long to realise that there was a huge demand for financial managers. With confidence, some gumption and a somewhat meagre experience, he struck out on his own and with diligent networking bagged contracts with heavyweights such as Duncans, Dunlop, Asian Oil Lubricants, Asian Oil Shipping, Kitply Industries, K.K. Birla and Shaw Wallace. Today his sole proprietorship, Verity Financials, continues to advise people on where to place their money.

In the job market, money managers come in different shapes and sizes. There is the independent financial planner who advises the client — an individual or a company — about investments such as stocks and shares, other assets, loans, and does a measure of tax and insurance planning. There is the fund manager whose specialisation is mutual funds. Marching to a different drum are investment bankers, who look mainly at corporate funds and structures deals for mergers and acquisitions.

What exactly do money managers do? “In simple terms,” explains Goenka, “the job of the investment manager is to make your money grow, whether you are an individual, a company, a corporate house, an organisation, a society or even a government body.”
It is in the mutual fund and individual wealth management side of things that job opportunities have piled up rapidly.

Small investors prefer to park their money in mutual funds. According to credit rating agency Crisil, the Indian mutual fund industry has grown by about 4.2 times from 1993 (Rs 47,000 crores) to 2005 (Rs 1,99,200 crores) in terms of assets under management (AUM). The private sector was allowed to enter this area in 1993, ending the Unit Trust of India’s (UTI) monopoly. From 1998 to 2005, the AUM of the sector, excluding UTI, soared by over 15 times to reach Rs 1,73,800 crores. People are required by the industry but jobs are going abegging despite fly-away salaries. There just aren’t enough trained people.

Nirakar Ganguli, relationship manager, Standard Chartered Bank, Calcutta, puts the demand in context by pointing out the “shift from traditional banking to investment banking”. “In the last three to four years there has been a very big need for more recruits in the area of financial advisors and fund managers,” he says.

Today, investment avenues even for the individual are no longer limited to bank fixed deposits (the traditional mode of individual investment), but also include putting money in mutual funds, bonds and debentures and the share markets. “Traditional banking is no longer an attractive option,” explains Ganguli. “The interest rates are abysmally low (4.5 per cent pa for a savings account) and the returns understandably are not very satisfactory.”

So there is a greater focus on other types of investments, such as bonds and debentures, mutual funds and the share market. But these money-making options are considered risky, making it imperative for the investor to seek the guidance of fund advisors. While only UTI provided these opportunities earlier, today there are many other players.

So what does it take to become a money manager? A business management degree or a qualification in chartered accountancy or cost accountancy helps. Also, in today’s global village, an understanding of international economic trends, of the domestic economy and an aptitude for number crunching is crucial. Notes Paromita Chakraborty, personal financial consultant, Standard Chartered Bank, Calcutta, “While a management degree may help in getting you a job or even understanding some basic marketing concepts, the real training is gained on the job. You need to understand an individual’s or a corporation’s financial needs and build up their monetary growth plans accordingly.”

As far as salaries are concerned, investment banking (which includes structuring takeovers) is considered very lucrative. MBA graduates from premier business schools can command six-figure starting salaries, sometimes in dollars and other foreign currencies. Middle-level business school graduates can expect starting salaries of Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 a month. Graduates from general streams employed by investment companies as, say, marketing executives can start around Rs 8,000 a month and get Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 once they are confirmed.

Other people’s good fortune can be your gateway to a new career.